Scrapyards can be a gold mine...5 quid buys you this:

Went to the scrappy to get a cambelt cover and down poured the rain, I dived into the nearest car to shelter from the rain, which was a old Saab and couldn't believe my eyes. An early Alpine was looking at me…hooked it out and handed over 5 quid. I've now fitted it to my Golf and works perfectly.



Would you say 1982-83?
Is it rare?

Nice  

Cheers crazy,

Just being a bit nosey, just wondered what radio everyone else has got fitted to their car? Piccys welcome.

It was meant to be lhasa!

I agree, fate and all that. An old Abba tape was still in the Alpine and I was playing it when the picture was taken. The sound quality is superb.

I've never seen an early Alpine before and I'm over the moon :mrgreen:

lhasa that is one Ruuuuude head unit. 8)  :notworthy:

I'm after an Alpine myself. Think I'm going to go for a new single slot MP3 effort.

I think Alpine is the best manufacturer for the MK1- Green lights and simple styling fit perfectly within the MK1's user environment :wink:

The 'mono' (note : not stereo!) in my Golf is a 1983 Blaupunkt. It has MW and LW only, no FM and no cassette either.

It has a single green light (not even an LED) for lighting up the FM dial and you have to turn the dial to tune it. The other control is off-on-volume… and er… that's it.

Down here in Kent the only thing I can pick up are french radio stations, nobody else appears to be transmitting on these frequencies here anymore!

Needless to say, on long journeys it is supplemented by a rather non-80s iRiver 20gigabyte mp3 player…

Cheers,

Drew.

Same up here as well, if I try to tune into LW and MW no channels are picked up.

I've also got an early Blaupunkt, I think it is the same model as yours Drew:

Kins - What about the period look?

Every item on my car date c 1982- 83 and I'm even playing cassettes from the 80s. Must be a total fruit cake!

Just for interest (being nosey again) what have the rest of you got in the box above the heater controls?

I've got a big hole in the hole above my heater contols :cry:

I'm saving up for a 2005 head unit as all my music now is mp3 format 8)

I've only got old "Now thats what I call music" tapes and never listen to them. Although there is some good tunes on Now 1994 ha ha ops:

Really cant remember what the last CD I bought was hmmmmm  :dontknow:

Digital is the future. I love my old car but dont think I could put up with an old stereo :wink:

HI all, Ive got a hole above my heater controls and would like to fit the original radio in it. Its a 1958 gti cabby. Has anybody got a picture or the make and model of the one that was originally fitted in 85.

Ive just sourced the original seats fitted to mine as somebody had put the red stripy ones in mine !!.

Im going for the completely original look. Ill post some piccys soon.

Thanks

Thats 1985 not 1958.......!!!

Most MK1 Golf owners fit an early Blaupunkt radio for the period look and can be easily found in the scrapyards.

My first ever stereo was an alpine and not too unlike the one you have there! My dad paid an absolute fortune for it back then (around 1985) At that time alpine were leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else! Even the soft eject oozed quality! I wish I had kept it, I even had the alpine amp! Back then the connections at the back were different, not phono jacks but a din type connector! The good old days….Ah well soon I'll be dead and none of this will matter!! Cheers…Walt!

Thats a very interesting post and makes me feel I found a golden nugget in the scrapyard.

My Alpine is probably an early 80's model because only 5 wires are on the back, speaker left, speaker right, speaker common ground, earth and live. It has no Dolby and lights up white and not green as most people would think. Thats it nothing else.

 :mrgreen:

Must be early 80's I think your right! The one I had shared some similar features to yours. The two arrows for example! By the time mine was brought out they had amps and facilities for electric aerials etc! If I remember rightly the amp was about 16W per channel, the stereo was about 4 I think! Enough to impress the laydees in my white T reg capri!….Where the hell have the last 15 years gone?…..

Funny enough I tried to bump up the volume on my Alpine by using my 80s Pioneer AMP GM-4. The head unit was unfortunately lost :cry: The problem was it would not work with the Alpine (I had to cut the plug off)and I found out that it is only possible to fit an AMP to an early head unit with an AMP by soldering on a resistor to each speaker output wire. The output would have to be measured to select the correct resistor. Get it wrong and the unit history, hence the AMP is back in the cupboard.

That sounds about right! Back then they used their own connections etc to keep you buying their equipment! Compare that to what we have now, things have really moved on, you can change a stereo in about 5 mins! Two plugs and thats it! I used to always run my power straight from the battery with 40 amp cable to remove any electrical interference!…. Back in the good old days, when the sun was always shining, when I had friends and my hamster Reggie was still alive……My hair was all brown and my bunions wouldn't throb prior to a cold north westerly bringing with it rain and sleet! Dear oh dear oh dear! Anyone got any prozak?

Walt mate- cheer up man, winter has finished, summer is on its way, you got a MK1, its all gravy 8)

Spotted this but its not in a scrappy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27385&item=4542343595&rd=1